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Fast Facts

Intro

Since Nintendo first introduced the world to Yoshi back in 1990, every game that has featured the cute green dino has had its own unique twist or charm to it. From games that are based entirely in arts and crafts boxes, to games where our Italian plumber friends haven’t even taken their first steps. These things are what keep the Yoshi line of video games super intriguing and interesting for longtime fans.  Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is no exception, although we’ve seen Yoshi games set inside of books before none of them have been quite like this.  Is this a page turner or should players have judged it by its cover?

Story

A talking book called Mr. E (short for Mr.  Encyclopaedia) crashes to the Yoshi’s Island after being handled by Bowser Jr, who has ended up inside the pages after being enamoured by a mystical bird he saw in there.  However, when the Yoshi’s approach Mr. E they quickly find that this encyclopaedia is missing a lot of its important contents.  It is now up to the Yoshi’s to explore the remaining pages of Mr. E and re-discover all the secrets they can along the way.  All done whilst trying to avoid and thwart attempts by Bowser Jr and Kamek and send them back to their castle.

Games in the Mario series, and those that are Mario-adjacent, aren’t known for having the deepest of stories but this one may be one of the weakest we’ve seen.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it tough to be invested.  

Gameplay

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book’s worls are divided up as different pages/chapters inside of Mr. E, and entering one of these pages will provide you with a creatures that need their information filling out. To do so players will enter the corresponding areas of these chapters and interact with these creatures. This could be from having Yoshi swallow them to find out how they taste, feed them differen fruits, having them saddle up on the back of Yoshi and even attacking them. There’s a lot of different ways to interact with each creature but it never really feels natural. Even when you start getting into the flow of each level, it feels like you’re cut short

Even when you start getting into the flow of each level, it feels a little lacking.  However, the more that players discover about the creatures means the more they can do to help unlock later levels.  It’s a neat touch that forces players to be inquisitive.

As stated earlier, Yoshi games aren’t known for being the toughest games and often rely on their unique twists to keep the player engaged.  However, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will struggle to provide challenging platforming for anyone who’s ever played a Mario game before.  It holds the player’s hand at every opportunity and everything feels a little too structured and safe.  The platforming here is simplistic and doesn’t offer much challenge, it’s more down to how each of the creatures interacts with Yoshi and the world around them.  Yes they’re varied, but it just feels like it’s missing a certain something.  Younger gamers will probably get a lot more out of this than those that were around when Yoshi first came about.

Presentation

As expected with games in the Yoshi series, Nintendo have sprinkled a tonne of unique charm and style into this game.  Everything has a pseudo paper like feel , where each character and Locations looks like its take straight from a  book (as expected).  Whilst this design choice may not be to everyone’s preference, they set Yoshi & The Mysterious Book apart from other platform games that are on the shelves right now.  

But it doesn’t stop with the visuals, every single sound effect and musical beat can’t help but put a smile on your face.  With each creature having their own selection of bleats and chirps, the Yoshi’s own unique (and by now iconic) sounds, and level music that will have you tapping your feet along for the ride.  It all comes together to give a really pleasant and charming gaming experience.

Conclusion

If gamers are picking up Yoshi & The Mysterious Book to have some deep and thought provoking platforming experience, with a story that has you questioning every action they’ve taken in life…they’ll be disappointed.  Let’s be honest, these games have always been designed with charm and fun at the forefront.  Simplistic gameplay that can be done in “pick up and go” chunks, with oodles of instances that will have the player grinning from ear to ear.  We know it’s not for everyone, but this is definitely one book you shouldn’t judge by the cover alone.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book can be purchased for the Nintendo Switch 2 here: https://store.nintendo.com